Haptik Sustainable Suite Design by WATG

The USGBC, American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), and The Network of the Hospitality Industry (NEWH) together announced the winner of the first ever Sustainable Suite Design Competition. The purpose of the competition was to showcase the best hospitality design strategies that boast environmental responsibility while enhancing the guest experience. Out of 65 professional design entries, WATG and IDEO took the top prize for their suite, Haptik.

WATG led the creative design and specification process, while IDEO contributed experience on human-centered sustainability for the design. Their creation, dubbed Haptik — a Greek term meaning to experience interactions based on the sense of touch — features some of the following sustainable design elements:

An "all-off" switch to ensure lights are automatically turned off;

A NanaWall that opens up the inside with fresh air and views;

Long-lasting LEDs that light the space while saving energy;

A room conditioned with a four-pipe horizontal fan-coil system;

An interior finished with FSC certified woods and zero-VOC paints;

A trombe wall in the shower that captures solar heat in order to warm shower water; and

Graywater irrigation system that filters and recycles shower water for outdoor gardens and landscaping use.

Winners WATG and IDEO will build their Haptik design, where it will be showcased at the 2010 HD Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada in May 2010.

It’s beautiful, but there’s no bath tub, a glass shower visible to all those office buildings, no railings (the hotel’s insurance policy is sure to love that,) the motion sensitive lights would turn off when someone’s in bed reading a book, and turn off when rolling over in the middleof the night, and the hotel room has no tv? Not to mention, the padded eating area would get sogged in the rain if there were the slightest of a breeze (which there probably would always be in a highrise) making it hard to justify as livable square footage in any wet climate. I hate to be a stick in the mud, but there seem to be some design flaws in this concept.